Some packers still prefer to use the half-pound flat salmon cans, and some 

 crab meat is also canned in the 1 -pound flat size. Regardless of size, all 

 cans are treated inside with the C enamel. The cans are normally packed 

 with a layer of leg meat on both bottom and top, the center being filled with 

 body meat. Some packers may pack the can with leg meat in only the top 

 layer. After the cans are filled, they are hermetically sealed under vacuum, 

 suitably heat-processed, then chilled quickly with cold water. 



More information about the processing and canning of crab meat 

 is found in Fishery Leaflets 85, 88, and 374, and Separate No. 50, available 

 free of charge from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the 

 Interior, Washington 2 5, D. C. 



MARKETING 



Dungeness crab is marketed in three different forms: (1) Whole 

 crab, fresh or frozen, (2) fresh or frozen meat, and (3) canned meat. Nearly 

 85 percent of the total catch is marketed fresh and frozen, either as whole 

 crab or as picked meat, in States west of the Rocky Mountains, particularly 

 in the Pacific Coast States. Nearly all the crabs landed in California, the 

 largest marketing area on the Pacific Coast, go to the fresh-market trade. 

 Fresh-crab shippers in Oregon and Washington also supply the California 

 market. A few individually packaged and frozen whole crabs are marketed 

 in the Midwestern States as well as in some of the large eastern cities. 

 Canned Dungeness crab meat is offered for sale throughout the United States. 



Before 1920, Dungeness crab was marketed in one form only -- 

 freshly cooked whole crab. Up to that time, the domestic canned crab meat 

 market was completely dominated by foreign crab meat, mainly from Japan. 

 Domestic producers, lacking a good formula, were skeptical about canning 

 the meat and felt that they could not compete with foreign producers. For 

 several years before 1920, trade journals strongly emphasized that Dungeness 

 crab meat had a flavor superior to foreign canned crab meat and had urged 

 the crab industry to start canning Dungeness crab. It is claimed that a 

 canning formula was borrowed from Japan, and with the encouragement of 

 a trade journal, Dungeness crab meat was first canned in Alaska in 1920, 

 and in Washington and Oregon in 1927. 



The small Alaska pack of 75 cases in 1920 was a success, and 

 the industry in Alaska quickly expanded. Canners were quick to enter this 

 new field because it afforded off-season employment to cannery workers 

 and fishermen. In 1948 a record pack of 169, 798 cases of Dungeness 

 meat, valued at $3, 820, 622, was produced by the entire industry. This 

 amount represented about 30 percent of the crabs landed that year, while 

 the remaining 70 percent was marketed fresh or frozen as either whole 

 crabs or picked meat. 



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